![\"Star](\"http:\/\/briantroutman.com\/land\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/stargazers.png\" "\\"stargazers\\"")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Star Gazer<\/em>‘s personality was partially rooted in the fact that the production wasn’t sophisticated\u2014it was tacky.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
You’ll have to excuse me\u2014I hadn’t looked up the current Star Gazer<\/em> episode in a few months. I must say I am disappointed by what I found.<\/p>\n
Ever since Jack Horkheimer’s unfortunate and untimely passing, I wondered what would become of Star Gazer<\/em> and the parade of guest hosts filling Jack’s place. While apparently knowledgeable and professional, none of the replacement hosts seemed to capture Jack’s zeal. Then again, I doubt anyone could, and I am not taking exception to the hosts. Hopefully they will grow into their roles and develop engaging styles of their own.<\/p>\n
I do, however, take exception to the radical change in the show’s image. I think that the show can be perpetuated and updated with new hosts while remaining faithful to some of the core attributes that made it memorable. Star Gazer<\/em>‘s personality was partially rooted in the fact that the production wasn’t sophisticated\u2014it was tacky. The graphics weren’t slick or particularly modern, and the Tomita synthesizer music was abundantly cheesy.<\/p>\n
In a similar vein as The Price is Right<\/em>, Star Gazer<\/em> existed in a time warp, perfectly content to exist in the ’70s or today without any care for modern aesthetics or trends. And just as The Price is Right<\/em> was able to withstand a transition to a new and younger host without loss of its entire identity, so too is it possible for Star Gazer<\/em>.<\/p>\n
Sadly, this isn’t the path that was selected. I have to wonder why, as the new graphics and “rocking” theme are not (in my opinion) going to attract new viewers or new affiliates. Further, the fast-paced, high-energy opening graphics are out-of-step with the visual pacing of the rest of the program. The high speed music and animations come to a crashing halt with the two hosts standing stationary in front of a screen and speaking in subdued tones\u2014it’s simply incongruous.<\/p>\n
Finally, I find it disrespectful that Horkheimer isn’t mentioned at all, no “created by…<\/em>“, “based on the work of…<\/em>” or similar mention in the credits. Not even a single word<\/em> on the Star Gazers website. Has he been written out of history?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Star Gazer‘s personality was partially rooted in the fact that the production wasn’t sophisticated\u2014it was tacky. You’ll have to excuse me\u2014I hadn’t looked up the current Star Gazer episode in a few months. I must say I am disappointed by what I found. Ever since Jack Horkheimer’s unfortunate and untimely passing, I wondered what would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[54,55,56,57],"class_list":["post-436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-odds-and-ends","tag-jack-horkheimer","tag-star-gazer","tag-star-hustler","tag-wpbt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/briantroutman.com\/land\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/briantroutman.com\/land\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/briantroutman.com\/land\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briantroutman.com\/land\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briantroutman.com\/land\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/briantroutman.com\/land\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":444,"href":"https:\/\/briantroutman.com\/land\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436\/revisions\/444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/briantroutman.com\/land\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briantroutman.com\/land\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briantroutman.com\/land\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}